Dichotomy Mapping

In this exercise, list all of the positive aspects of your product’s feature and then try to see what can happen if the feature is implemented to the extreme. Make sure this exercise is grounded on human needs. For example, Facebook intended for its engagement ranked newsfeed to show you the most relevant content from your friends and family…instead, it ended up showing the most outlandish and “clickbait-y” content and ended up fueling the fake news problem on its platform.

This is similar to the Maslow Mirrored exercise, but intentionally focuses in on specific features that your team is trying to implement for a product. Instead of taking a macro view, try to zoom in and figure out detailed variations of what beneficial and/or harmful results may occur from a product. Consider how those results might affect a single user as well as a group of users.